Health advice

Fellow Horse Forum-ers,
I think during my last post you misunderstood the question, or it was too 'vague'. I have been riding for years and I am will be leasing and hopefully one day buying a horse, and I have researched the different illnesses a lot. I have read a full book on the sicknesses, injuries, and diseases for horses and how to cure them, as well as TONS of on-line research. I know of most common diseases such as colic, laminitis, strangles and tons more. Here are some of the questions I have though:

Exactly HOW does your horse get colic, and how do you prevent it? How can you tell if he has it?
I think I know, but am not 100% sure, but how do you PREVENT Strangles?
When you horse gets a cut/gash, once you clean it up, WHAT should you clean it out with? (e.g. Alcohol, water, soap etc.). After you clean it out, if it is on the rear or the back, or the face, how do you wrap/patch it up?
And are there any rare but important sicknesses I should know of?

Thanks!,
Maddie

That depends on what exactly is causing abdominal pain. Colic is not a diagnosis--it is simply a sign of some problem that is causing abdominal pain. Intestinal impactions, twists, gas, gastric ulcers, laminitis and any number of other things can cause colic (abdominal pain). To prevent colic, keep plenty of fresh water available at all times, provide good quality, non-moldy hay and feed or pasture, minimize the amount of concentrate/grain feeds in the diet, treat for GI parasites as needed, consult your vet before giving any non-steroidal anti-inflammatories for more than a single dose (they can cause GI inflammation and ulceration)....those are the basics.

Quarantine any incoming horses for a minimum of 3 weeks to watch for signs of illness and to allow for the contageous but non-symptomatic disease carriers to stop being contageous before being turned out with other horses. If your horse is in an "at risk" situation-boarding in a busy show barn, showing, young, going to be going to a breeding facility-vaccinate against Strangles. Othwerwise maintain good nutrition and overall good health so that the body is better able to fight off ANY infectious disease.


For cleaning wounds, start with betadine or chlorhexidine solution mixed with water to create a very light colored solution. Do not use alcohol or peroxide. Wounds on the body often do not require bandaging because they are less likely to become recontaminated by contact with dirt. Wounds on the face, generally do not need bandaging either though in the case of very large lacerations where bone is exposed then bandaging may be necessary. If that is the case, your vet will show you how to bandage that particular wound. Leg wounds, especially lower leg wounds, are the ones that are most likely to need to be bandaged.


There are any number of rare but important diseases...should you know about them, likely they aren't ever going to be an issue for you--hence the term "rare". So, they aren't likely anything you need to know about.

The only thing I would add to Ryle's colic answer...

Usually you can tell a horse has colic because he will look like he is in pain. This can be different for every horse so you have to get to know what your horse is like when he feels good. When most horses are in pain from early stages of colic...they will paw the ground excessively...roll excessively...get up and down quite a bit...grunting...arcing of neck. Later stages might be staying down on the ground when you try to pull him up with a halter...overall lethargic droopiness. My horse has a few signs of pain that are individual to him like...he presses his forehead up against a solid wall...and he tends to point with his muzzle to his stomach when I am looking at him. The one time he had colic his sheath also swelled...I don't know if that is an unrelated coincidence or actually a symptom.

To cure colic...you can do a few things BEFORE the vet gets there...and always call a vet ASAP!

You can hand-walk the horse...keep walking...keep the horse up. You can load him in a trailer and go down a bumpy road...trailer rides in general make horses poo...which is the goal in colic. Some people reccomend a shot of Banamine...but many vets don't reccomend this because it can numb the pain (hide the pain) before the vet gets there to diagnose it properly.

Thanks, hotreddunn, I completely forgot about the "how to know if your horse is colicing" by the time I got to that point.

As for walking, it can be helpful if your horse is down and thrashing/rolling but it's not something you want to do too much of. Excessive walking just leads to further dehydration and exhaustion. If a horse will stand or lie quietly, there is no need to walk. If your horse is so painful he wants to lay down and roll, then walk him for a short while but if it's not looking better it's time to get your vet out asap.

Pooing isn't necessarily a sign that the colic is over. There is alot of intestine in there and you can have feces behind any impaction, twisted gut, etc and thus see poo when the problem still exists. This is why when we treat a colic at a veterinary hospital we watch for feces that has an oily sheen--seeing the mineral oil that we tubed them with pass is an indicator that what was higher up the GI tract than the problem is passing.

I agree...that's why I tried to emphasize those are things that you can do BEFORE (or while you're waiting) for the vet to get there. Hey Ryle...I've been meaning to ask you this for a while...what part of east Texas are you in? Im in Lufkin.

My old gelding coliced a few months back.
He was on stall rest because the vet thought he was possibly foundering, and was taken off grain and just given as much hay as he wanted.
A week later, the vet came back out to x-ray him and the farrier was out to shoe him. He had to be sedated for all of that.

After all was said and done, we turned him out in a small paddock and he would walk a bit and then lay down. Everyone thought his feet were sore (his hooves weren't trimmed properly in years and he also had shoes put on). We (my fiance and I) went in there and comforted him, saying how much better he'll feel.

Well at 2am that next morning, we got a call from our BO saying that Gem was colicing and they already put a call into the vet.
He had a slight impaction.
The vet removed as much manure rectally as he could and then flushed him out (via his nose) as much as he could.
He did NOT oil him because at that point we were either going to admit him to a clinic (for surgery) or wait a few hours and see (he said he he oiled Gem, and he DID need surgery, when they would cut him open the oil would go in him abdomen and stuff)

We watched Gem until 5:30 that morning, He did not improve nor worsen. We got some sleep, picked up a treat for him (not to give, but to soak in water so he'd drink water) and we would also walk/trot him for 10 min and then 20 min rest. Until he pooped. After hours of doing that, he finally pooped! Even after his first poo, we kept walking/trotting him until he pooped some more.

He was kept for grain for a while longer, but he made a full recovery.

Colic is very scary, espeically to me as that was the first time I've ever witnessed anything like that.

We are not sure what caused it (we think a combination of the drugs, stress from moving to a new barn, being able to eat grass and then being on stall rest)

I know I didn't really answer any of your questions, but I thought I'd give you a story of what happened with me and my horse.

I'm nearish Longview, but really in the middle of nowhere.

Im not a native east texan...so I consider the whole region the middle of nowhere Longview is near my mother in law...I try to avoid the area

Thanks SO much! You were a giant help!

Your books should tell you this.

Your books should also tell you this.

Yup, they should cover this too....

And again, this should also be covered.

So, do you know about horses and have lots of books and online research, or not?

I'm not trying to be cheeky, only letting you know that when you preface really basic questions with "I know lots of stuff", it makes you look, well, like someone who doesn't really want to be taken seriously.

Get a subscription to The Horse magazine, not just their online information either, but both their online web site and the print magazine. That will help you on your road to learning more about horses. The Horse: Your Guide to Equine Health Care